operate under a rule that I learned during seals training: Keep it simple and stupid. Thats common sense. To the public, yes, that does seem like common sense, and that is one of the reasons they like him. The public actually recognizes his vocabulary when he speaks about issues such as state budget surpluses, or infrastructure. In fact, Venturas speeches are said to be long on personal stories and memories and short on policy details. That rhetorical approach is very effective with people, especially people of Minnesota. Who wants to hear boring details about policies that we dont even understand? In general, the public can relate to him.Celebrity Appeal. It is hard to deny that Jesse Ventura is interesting. The mere fact that he was a professional wrestler probably won him a few votes. How often does a governor consider an interview with Playboy, more or less actually partake in the questioning? This was not a political mistake. The interview was one of many interesting circumstances under which Ventura has maintained public support and admiration. He focuses on a younger generation. Ill bet more young men read his article in Playboy than would have thought about picking up a Newsweek! In fact, Ventura tackled his win by motivating traditional nonvoters to vote. Almost 16% of the electorate registered on Election Day and Ventura got the lion share of those new voters. Furthermore, 12% of voters said they would not have voted if Jesse had not been on the ballot. He did particularly well with younger voters, carrying almost half of the vote of those under 30 (ABCNEWS.com, 2). These younger voters take a more live and let live approach, very similar to Jesses. Successful governing. The day after his election, Jesse knew very little about state government. But he has worked very hard spending long hours studying the details of what state government does, and he has appointed a number of able advisors. His governors...
